


floor 12.5

by endofthought



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 09:34:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16679089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endofthought/pseuds/endofthought
Summary: sara, nora, and thea, with all of their emotionally fraught histories, get trapped in an elevatorthings heal, just a bit





	floor 12.5

The elevator ground to a halt with a long, grinding clank. The lights dimmed. Sara and Nora both looked upward as Thea cracked open some of the emergency field lights she was carrying.

“Generators,” Thea observed. “Our timing’s off. Felicity must have just cut the power.”   
  
“So we’re stuck here for what, five minutes?” Sara asked. “I could probably get us up the shaft in three, maybe three-and-a-half.”   
  
“Better to wait and catch up,” Thea said. “Less risk. Comms are out, too. Damn.”

Sara sank down and patted the floor on either side of her. “Well, then. Let’s take a breather. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”   
  
Nora and Thea lowered themselves on either side of her, glancing suspiciously at one another. No formal introduction had been made yet and…

“Oh,” Nora said, and sat back against the wall, satisfied now that she had figured it out. “You’re the same age. Of course.”   
  
“What?” Thea said.    
  
“I’m much older, but you look the same. Don’t you remember me? You took me hostage and helped kill my father.”   
  
Thea stiffened and Sara looked from woman to woman. “Look,” she said. “Who among us hasn’t helped kill your father? But what’s going on?”   
  
“She’s Damien Darhk’s daughter,” Thea said, burying her face in her hands. “You should have mentioned that.”

“She’s one of our newbies. Trial basis,” Sara said and waved her hand vaguely. “So you kidnapped her?”   
  
“I held an arrow to her throat and leveraged her life against Darhk so he would let Oliver go,” Thea said, muffled. 

Sara shrugged and looked at Nora. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”   
  
“It was bad,” Thea and Nora said in unison.   
  
Sara rolled her eyes. “Thea, you literally killed me and weren’t this weirdly guilty about it. What’s up?”   
  
“That wasn’t of my own free will, and it’s different. She was just a kid.”

“Nine,” Nora said, like she was figuring the math out on the spot.

“I quit Speedy after that,” Thea continued. “I still use it every now and then, but I never really got over that.”   
  
“ _ You _ didn’t get over it?” Nora scoffed. “Mallus used it against me- every moment of that entire ordeal.”   
  
“Nora,” Sara said, hoping that she had built enough trust to warrant listening to at this particular moment. “Thea was trying to keep your dad from killing people. I’m sorry you ended being collateral damage because of his choices, but that wasn’t the only time, was it? Are you really going to hold Thea accountable for the destruction he caused?”   
  
Nora bit her lip and looked forward, avoiding eye contact. “She clearly thinks she has something to be sorry for.”   
  
“We forgive each other for our mistakes. That’s how we move on.”   
  
“Some things don’t have to be forgiven. Some things can’t,” Thea insisted, but Sara was shaking her head before she finished speaking.    
  
“You’re right, but not about this. I’ve known you your entire life, Thea. Darhk threw a lot at you to get you to that point. It wasn’t just Ollie’s life at stake.” 

They hung in silence for a moment, suspended twelve and a half stories above the concrete foundation.  
  
Sara turned to look at Nora. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to, but I need to know if we have a problem tonight, as a team.”   
  
Nora glared at her with no real heat. “I’m not going to wreck the mission.”   
  
Sara nodded. “Thank you.”   
  
“But you want more for me, don’t you?” Nora pushed. This was a new thing for her, post-Mallus. She always took the conversation one step beyond what was comfortable, like she was testing what boundaries should look like. 

“I’m your captain Nora, and I want what’s best for you. But only you can decide what that is.”   
  
“Ugh,” Thea groaned, tossing her head back. “This is why I don’t come home.”

“Stop that.” Sara kicked her ankle as Nora watched, frowning.   
  
“You forgave her,” Nora observed.    
  
“Not formally. We’ve never talked about it, but of course I did. Any culpability she might have had she made up for when she helped resurrect me. Malcolm Merlyn is the one to blame for my death, and I decided a while back not to make him pay for it.”

“Well, he paid for it all in the end. What’s taking them so long?!” Thea demanded.

“Be patient.”   
  
“I can’t believe you just said that.”   
  
Nora rose up to her knees so that she was kneeling and began to trace the panels of wood beside her as if she was looking for a clue of some sort. “Did you forgive me?”   
  
Sara, out of her eyeshot, rolled her eyes. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”   
  
“I almost killed you, once.”

“I killed your Dad,” Sara offered. “The second time around. I think we’re even.”   
  
“He killed your sister first.”   
  
“Yes, everyone’s families are dead and it’s very sad,” Thea snapped. “But we’ve only got twenty minutes to steal this elephant and if we don’t start moving soon we’ll miss the window.”

Sara threw her hands up. “Have a little faith in the team, Speedy!”  
  
Nora began scratching symbols into the elevator wall, attracting Sara and Thea’s attention.    
  
“What is she doing?” Thea asked.    
  
“Have a little faith,” Nora echoed back.   
  
“Please tell me this is something I would approve of,” Sara said.   
  
“I don’t know. I don’t know you that well yet.”

“Fair,” Sara allowed.   
  
The symbols began to glow and the elevator rattled.   
  
Thea braced herself against the corner she was sitting in. “Holy shit.”   
  
“Nora,” Sara warned.   
  
Thea laughed, nervous and humorless. “You’ve definitely shed that league ideology, Sara. She’s part of your team, but you don’t know her well and she tried to kill you?!”

“And who among us hasn’t almost killed me?” Sara snapped back.

“It wasn’t me!”   
  
“I know! I’ve been very good about having friends who kill me but it wasn’t really their fault so I don’t hold it against them! But at a certain point a person has to start wondering how many more times that’s going to happen!”

“Hush!” Nora said. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

All at once the rattling ceased, the lights flickered on again, and the elevator began to hum, if not move. They all scrambled to their feet.

“Was that you?” Sara asked.    
  
“No,” Nora admitted. “Your friends must have beat me to it.”

The elevator crept into its ascent again. Thea deactivated the emergency lights and the women placed themselves at the ready for the moment they reached their level.   
  
“Didn’t you just try to kill the whole crew not too long ago?” Nora asked as she tugged her gloves back on.

“Yeah, yeah. Glass houses. Ray gossips too much. Does anyone have comms?”

“I’ve got feedback,” Thea reported, flinching.

“You good?” Sara asked.

“I’m good,” Thea assured. She took her first decent look at Nora, who returned her gaze, chin stiff. “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth. I’ll- I would have reacted better, if I wasn’t so sorry.”   
  
Sara snorted and whipped out one of her batons, testing its weight. “I get that.”

“Yeah.” Nora muttered it under her breath, but the other women heard her anyway

In front of them, the doors opened. 

**Author's Note:**

> nora is soft and i need help


End file.
